not so bad

the last two days have been pretty good.
no major poo incidents.
the kid that said i was a gringo, not her teacher, drew me a picture today.
she can be my friend again.

and the showers work, and the toilets seem to be flushing, and we got a hitch all the way back from our project today (cutting out the 40 min walk), and i'm going to buy the best smoothie ever, and i get two weeks off starting now.... well, technically monday, and i got a couple much needed donations.

one of the girls at the hogar has taken to calling me gorgita and poking my tummy. this roughly translates to 'little fatty'. although another one called me flacita today which is the opposite... i think she figured i was offended.
i'll just take both as terms of endearment.

crazy

i am starting to go a wee bit mad here living at the orphanage.
the only volunteer living here for 10 days.
but i'm leaving next week to renew my visa in costa rica.
some super budget style traveling.

escape at last...

until then, the poo incidents will continue... i lost a shirt to poo today....
and along with 20 children banging down my door 24/7 b/c they want a book or a puzzle or a colouring book.... will i stay sane?
i think i can i think i can i think i can i think i can........

from good to stress fest

so this week was not so great as last.
there was a rather large incident with poo which inspired mary to head up a cleaning and painting project of the youngest kids´room.
poo is actually an ongoing issue with dogs who really need to not be at the orphanage, and kids who aren´t grossed out by it.

wednesday was kids day, which seemed to be somewhat disorganized - especially at the campesino project i work at (the hogar kids seemed to have a good day). it didn´t even really happen there until 2 days late. someone who was supposed to be in charge of bringing and organizing gifts and cake really wasn´t on the ball. i wish we had been given some notice as to what was going on with this holiday, and we could have made it something a little more special for the kids. at least we managed to get some games and skip rope in with the kids once we realized that class wasn´t going to be as usual today. i got to teach them a politically incorrect skip rope song-game... the one that goes¨"not last night but the night before.... etc." they loved it, and have no idea what the words are, but it kept going on and on as each kid wanted a turn.
oh... and then, the abuela of the village (like the leader) made me feel guilty for not bringing gifts earlier (even though it wasnt my job) and also said i had to bring more on monday... while the other lady (who´s job it was to bring the gifts) told me not to b-c she had brought enough and the abuela was basically conning me.... (is that a word?) plus both of them were speaking to me in spanish super fast, thinking i understood them, when really i only caught the drift... or at least i think i did.
who knows.
all locals here seem to think foreigners are all super rich (ha ha) and should just be handing out random presents like some sort of santa clause person. it´s pretty warped. it´s so backwards.
i could go on and on in a big anti-capitalism rant, but i´ll spare you.

on the bright side, the showers are functioning now - so hopefully they won´t break again!
the toilets, however are not yet operational in the kids bathrooms - so it´s difficult to teach the kids propper hygeine.

i have so much going on in my head and i can´t write fast enough! i appologize if you are reading this and wondering what the heck i am talking about...

the height of it this week was me, the only volunteer at the hogar for now, doing laps around the halls last night, bar of soap in one hand, towel in the other, bypassing kids as they bathed making sure they used soap, and returned the soap- stopping along the way to clean up dog poop or get a kid a toy or book or helping a kid bathe or look for underwear etc for kids getting ready for bed, or yelling at someone for chasing someone or accidentally giving another kid a semi black eye.... i felt like miss hanagan from the movie annie... i think she was just misunderstood...
i need to watch that movie again.

oh, and the puppet project is on hold. we´ve made the puppets and will try to put together a little show once i get back from renewing my visa. but the kids can be such brats. one ripped the nose off my puppet, and others have let me know that they dont want to take the class anymore.
they have the attention span of gnats.

all that said and done, i´m still glad i moved in - and hopefully can afford to continue living there- as i´ve really gotten to get to know the kids much better being there at night. it´s actually pretty cute helping the little guys brush there teeth.

it is the weekend now, and i get to escape for a day... go to the beach or something and try not to think of dog poop, money and non functioning toilets. horray!

at the hogar

my first week living at the hogar was actually great!
i love being around the kids when i´m not their teacher.
and going to work at the other project for the morning to afternoon gives me a good long break from being there.
so far so good.
and my roommate at the hogar is great. we´re getting along extremely well. i can be my regular, somewhat inappropriate self with her.
and she´s big on the working out. so we work out together at the hogar in the afternoons (and some of the kids join in, which is pretty cute... or just dance around to our workout music).

so it was a positive week, although i was pretty much completely dead by friday. kind of like a zombie. i think that´s just an every week thing now. end of week is zombie exhaustion time. (sp?)

last night a small group of us went to watch the honduras vs canada football(soccer) game. canada lost. lots of happy hondurans driving around honking with flags hanging out the window. i brought my canadian flag just for kicks. it´s probably a good thing we lost or i may have gotten shot.
maybe.

this wednesday is national kids day so it´ll be busy and interesting. all the kids in the program get a gift, and i think there will be a bar-b-que and a piñata, fun!

next week mary (my roommate) will be gone renewing her visa, so i´ll be the only volunteer at the hogar. that´ll be interesting. i´ll be sure to write about that... and after that i´m going to renew my visa and take a couple weeks for travel.
always something new.

i hope everyone is healthy and happy at home or wherever you are.

new home

so i moved into the orphanage for the next 3 ish weeks b-c they are short on volunteers there for now.
so i´m living with all the kids.
i told the other volunteers that if i start talking about hating the kids that they have to make me move back to the volunteer house!
all the supplies for the kids are kept in the volunteer room, so most of the ´free time´is spent answering the door as every kid asks for a book or a toy or crayons etc etc etc.
they are quite demanding.
cute though, but demanding.

i´m hoping to get a quote for the price of a propper plumber and for someone to repair the showers. these are huge issues at the hogar, and i´m hoping i can raise some funds back home to cover these costs. for sanitation reasons alone.

today at the campesino project i was telling the kinder to stop talking while ´their teacher´ was talking.
i was told that i´m not their teacher, i´m a gringo.
fantastic.
thanks kid.
glad i came all this way.

i can laugh about it now.